Pioneer: 2011 Vol.58 No.3

George Martin Ottinger
was born in
Springfield
Township,
Montgomery
County,
Pennsylvania,
on
February 8,
1833 . . .
[to] William and Elizabeth Martin
Ottinger, who were Quakers.
. . . Ottinger converted to Mormonism
in Pennsylvania in June 1858 at
the behest of his mother, a church
member. . . .
By the summer of 1861, Ottinger
had moved his mother to
Salt Lake City, Utah Territory. His
original intention was to settle her
there, then move on to California.
However, when he found there was
plenty of work for him in Salt Lake
City, he decided to remain there.
Ottinger soon entered into partnership
with Charles Roscoe Savage, a
local photographer. There is some
evidence that Savage had been
acquainted with Ottinger’s mother
back east and that perhaps Savage
and Ottinger had actually known
each other before Ottinger came
to Salt Lake City. As Ottinger later
related, “I commenced coloring
photographs, very poor ones at
that, taken by C. R. Savage.” He
received two and a half gallons of
molasses as payment for his first
coloring assignment. . . . During his
first year in Salt Lake City, Ottinger
married Mary Jan McAllister Cullin.
They had a son, William before
the untimely death of Mary Jane.
Ottinger remarried on December 3,
1864, to Miss Phoebe Nelsen.
As the . . . partnership developed,
Ottinger became identified
as the expert retoucher and studio
worker, while Savage grew increasingly
interested in field photography.
. . . [Ottinger] had begun
to display a flair for large-scale
painting by 1862, when he painted
the stage scenery for the Salt Lake
Theater. Later, Ottinger developed
a talent as an actor, and he took on
several lead roles in Shakespearean
dramas.
On July 25, 1863, the directors
of the newly founded Deseret Academy
of Arts prepared a prospectus
in which George M. Ottinger was
listed as president and drawing
instructor and Charles R. Savage a
member of the board of directors.
The curriculum was to include all
the disciplines of the fine arts, as
well as photography. Students interested
in enrolling in the academy
were directed to do so at the Savage
and Ottinger gallery. On December
18, 1863, the partners advertised
the opening of their “New Gallery”
between the post office and Council
House in Salt Lake City. In addition
to “first class Portraiture in any
style,” they offered “views of City,
Mountain and Lake Scenery, for
sale.” The following year Ottinger
moved his family into a house at
384 Third Street, where he would
reside for most of the remainder of
his life. . . .
Ottinger and Savage dissolved
their partnership around 1872 but
remained close friends for the rest
of their lives. . . . Ottinger . . . was
assistant engineer of the Salt Lake
City Volunteer Fire Department from
1872 until being elected fire chief
in 1876 . . .[and] superintendent of
the city’s waterworks beginning in
1870. . . . He and Charles Savage
traveled together to England on a
church mission in 1879, and he
painted murals for Mormon temples
in St. George in 1877, Logan in
1884, and Manti in 1888.
In 1881, Ottinger was a
cofounder of the Salt Lake Art
Association . . . , [was a] “special
instructor” in art at the University of
Deseret on August 21, 1882, and
was instrumental
in training many
of early Utah’s
best artists. By
1885 he was a
full professor. . . .
Ottinger was appointed
adjutant
general of Utah
in March 1894.
. . . [and] he organized
the Utah
National Guard.
. . . Ottinger
died October 29,
1917, . . . [and is]
buried in the City
Cemetery, Salt
Lake City.
Excerpts from
Peter E. Palmquist,
Thomas R.
Kailbourn, Pioneer
Photographers of
the Far West: A
Biographical
Dictionary, 1840–
1865 (Stanford,
CA.: Stanford
Univ. Press, 2000),
426–27.
Pioneer 2011 volume 58 number ■ ■
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